Edwards, Rev. Jonathan.  "An Illustrated History of Spokane County, State of
Washington."  San Francisco: W. H. Lever, 1900.  p. 410.
 
EDWIN R. CHILDS

     president and manager of the Childs Lumber Company, is a native of
Greenfield, Huron county, Ohio, born December 28, 1842. At the early age of
eleven, he was left an orphan, and had to work out the difficult problem of
existence for himself. In 1859 he went to Jennings county, Indiana, and on April
16, 1861, enlisted as private in Company G. Sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry.
After three months' service he re-enlisted, becoming a private in the
Thirty-seventh Indiana Infantry, which formed a part of the Fourteenth Army
Corps.   He took part in the engagements at Stone River, where he was slightly
wounded, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Nashville, Resaca and Atlanta, was
veteranized February 11, 1864, and was in Sherman's famous march to the sea. He
afterwards became duty sergeant, and served as such till the cessation of
hostilities. Few men now living have seen longer service or more hard fighting
in the war of the Rebellion than has Mr. Childs. Returning to civil
pursuits, after four years of faithful military service, he came out to
Minnesota and bought one hundred and sixty acres in Blue Earth county, but soon
located in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he had charge of a government saw
mill for two years. He next went to Des Moines, Iowa, and secured employment in
a planing mill, of which he afterward became manager. In 1883 he came to Spokane
and worked in a planing mill one year, after which he was engaged in contracting
and building for several years, putting up the Lincoln school and many of the
largest buildings and finest residences of the city. In 1887 he organized
the Spokane Manufacturing & Lumber Company,of which he was manager for one year.
In 1892 he built a small planing mill, which two years later was enlarged and
moved to its present location, and which, since then, has been again enlarged
and improved in many ways. It is now owned by Mr. Childs and his two sons
and Mr. L. F. Williams. They employ forty hands and manufacture all kinds of
building materials. Mr. Childs is a man of commanding personal appearance, tall,
erect and soldierly in his bearing. He owes his success in life solely to
his own unaided efforts and to his unusual energy and force of character. Since
coining to Spokane he has been a prominent factor in the development of the
city, not only building up the enterprises in which he himself has been
interested, but contributing liberally to others of a public or semi-public
nature. He was married in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1869, to Miss Isabel Baker. They
have four children: Dee, wife of Charles Hayward, electrician in this city;
Leroy L., who, inheriting his father's patriotism, enlisted in Company L, First
Washington Volunteer Infantry, served through the Philippine war, receiving a
slight wound in action, and was discharged as first sergeant; also Jonas W. and
Isabel.


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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in February 2008 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.